When the heart dictates your Saturday afternoon
by lifeisahiddenriddle
Summary: (Pre-relationship) Sometimes Tsukishima wondered why the hell his heart had to beat faster when he saw Kageyama's stupid smile.
1. Chapter 1

**Note: Prompts Used from Tumblr's TsukkiKage Week, Animals. Time, Free prompt, Discovery.**

All Tsukishima wanted to do was go home after their Saturday morning volleyball practice.

Turned out that it was next to the impossible the way the universe made him stuck to Kageyama as they walked along together going to their respective homes. Yamaguchi already planned the afternoon to hang out with Hinata and Yachi while both Kageyama and himself rejected the outing. Not at the same time mind you but, regardless he was left walking home with Kageyama close by minding his own business. Tsukishima was only thankful that neither of them were talkative people by nature. After all, he didn't know what to exactly say to the guy that unfortunately made his heart dash across his chest and lungs while annoying him at the same time. In all, he didn't appreciate how the universe played with him and made his heart susceptible towards the volleyball genius that irked him daily for just existing. It was downright irritating how both didn't share too many hobbies, had different smarts to approach life and virtually made him almost consider hitting his head against the wall when he was forced to help him study. It was stifling, it was unthinkable and yet it happened. He couldn't do much to his horror as he quickly understood how fast his own heart yearned to be near the guy. His simple yet excitable snippets of victory cries didn't annoy him like the first the day he met him; instead it got adorable. And that word used to describe Kageyama only made Tsukishima shudder as he could only accept (rather pathetically groan in defeat kind of way) to see that he could not deny his attraction. He couldn't outrun this course; Yamaguchi would not have it as his best friend.

After all, Yamaguchi was the one that made Tsukishima admit it out loud in the first place (and he was smug about it too when Tsukishima relented in defeat).

So, Tsukishima had to live with the knowledge that Kageyama was current infatuation. Who knew a simpleton was his type, Tsukishima didn't and look where it got him. Walking next the guy while trying to make his heart calm down and get over the fact that he was alone with him was not an easy thing to do. He just wanted his body to get over the idea that it was nothing special, he would not do anything risky or stupid to get closer to the setter. He had academics to worry about, an older brother to ignore and just over question his stance with volleyball. It just felt like time was not helping him as the days turned into weeks. So much started to happen that Tsukishima didn't know how to summarize anything anymore. It was too jumbled to let him be distinct for the overall theme for his first year in high school. He just knew that volleyball in particular was going to keep biting him in the ass the longer he stayed in the club.

"Woof, woof!"

"Tsukishima, there's a dog following you."

The words barely registered into his head as he looked at all sides from him, when he finally looked behind him he noticed that Kageyama was telling the truth. It was a medium sized brown dog who he recognized as one of his neighbors' and the same one that kept popping up around him and Yamaguchi. His barked calmed down when he lowered his hand and petted his head. The longer his hand stayed petting him, his tail wagged in full speed and licked his hand.

"What?" Tsukishima could feel Kageyama's intense glares.

He felt the goosebumps coming with another round of an erratic heart beating and coloring his ears. He made sure to keep his facial expressions intact as he leveled his eyes. But that still didn't make Kageyama to falter, as he took a small step towards Tsukishima and more noticeably towards the dog. Tsukishima couldn't really help but tsked in annoyance.

"I know the dog's owner, it's okay to pet him." He kept letting his hand being licked, "He doesn't bite, he's just a big softy."

The face the Kageyama made next was unsurprisingly ugly, in the way it was too hilarious not to comment on. His scowl that he always wore when he pondered too hard deepened. He hesitated with one hand inching closer the dog's eye vision. When he found some small resolve he looked back at Tsukishima and then promptly inched his body closer. When more than a minute passed Tsukishima's patience felt like it was being tested.

"Come on, it's not rocket science."

He promptly grabbed his hand and put it on top of the head of the dog who stiffen from the sudden touch, he barked twice before settling down quickly when Tsukishima forced Kageyama's hand to scratch underneath the dog's chin. It didn't take long for the dog to lick Kageyama's hand, and making Tsukishima's cheeks to glow red when he saw Kageyama's face soften. His eyes were half open, his usual pout was transformed into a soft smile that eroded into puffs of laughter. It almost looked like he was glowing; and it most definitely made Tsukishima blush flourish and almost made him tighten his hold on Kageyama's hand. But he was smart and quick enough to stop himself from doing that, but unfortunately he was unable to picture going on with life without holding Kageyama's hand now. Because apparently, it felt nice to holds hands with other people; go figure Kageyama was single-handling making Tsukishima realize all this lovesick bullshit was half not bad but still bad enough to make him want to vomit at how sweet it was. He didn't know what else to say at this realization, other than that Kageyama was driving crazy. And that more importantly that Kageyama was petting the dog with Tsukishima's hand resting on top of his; meaning they have been holding hands longer that he anticipated or could probably handle the way his face was coloring. Kageyama didn't say anything, and Tsukishima tried his best to cool his face before Kageyama could comment. And that was how Tsukishima reluctantly spend his Saturday afternoon. With his neighbor's over friendly dog and Kageyama's too cute face feet away from him, while allowing him to hold his hand.

He was only relieved that Yamaguchi didn't witness this.


	2. Say that Again

**Inspired by the TsukkiKage prompts : Night, Water, Fire**

After the whole dog incident Tsukishima couldn't stop but rethink about the memory of Kageyama's hand underneath his.

It was so unlike him to obsess over something like that, that it made Tsukishima want to curse his best friend for making him all too aware of his bubbling feelings for Kageyama. So he was thankful that nobody he knew witnessed today's ordeal. As well, for Kageyama not commenting on the hand holding that lasted longer than a minute. The rest of the walk home was only filled with Tsukishima trying to calm down his heart and trying to make his face less colored while at the same making sure that Kageyama did not notice his odd behavior. He was just happy how it ended in his favor with Kageyama taking his turn leaving Tsukishima alone with the dog in tow wagging his tail the rest of the way home. But when he returned the dog and made it to his room he was alone with his thoughts; like how he replayed how Kageyama's smile still etched into his face when they pulled away or how and serene it felt to be close to him. That moment was far too short the way Kageyama left with a quiet goodbye.

Even after finishing homework and eating a late lunch with his mom and dinner later that night Tsukishima couldn't stop coming into the conclusion that he was entirely one hundred percent screwed if Yamaguchi found about this incident or god forbid Sugawara. So when his best friend messaged him a little later at night and spilled about his day with the other two Tsukishima knew better than to tell Yamaguchi what happened that afternoon. Instead he read and commented to Yamaguchi's messages with a snide comment or two in between. By the time it was time to sleep he rolled inside his blanket and pillow and stared out his window. The night sky was clear enough to see few stars shining brightly as well quite enough to hear his own breathing if he concerted hard enough. It was a mere hours ago that he held Kageyama's hand and he was resulted into this mess; he didn't know how he would survive tomorrow or Monday practice. Yamaguchi would be smart enough to notice with his oddities in behavior because after years of being his friend he got better at reading him like a book.

It made him wonder how long he could keep it up and pretend nothing happened when it really did. Like how would Tsukishima continue looking at Kageyama without flashbacking from today's event. All this love sickness was bringing out this side of him he ever wanted to meet, he didn't want to live a life with sweaty palms, and skin that just kept on flushing with a Yamaguchi laughing in the background. It was not comfortable to lay on his pillow and keep on questioning why his heart was fickle and annoying organ. Fifteen long years later without much care about crushes and want to be a part of someone's else life romantically gone to waste and now he was in this unsure crossroad where he was walking in a cautious manner. It was like trying to walk on boiling hot water or being burned alive. It was painful to his chest; it was gross the way he felt like he sweated more than he did in practice when he got nervous for no apparent reason when he had to tutor him. Only small mercies of having a crowd around him when he interacted with Kageyama made him sane. It made him act smart and slip into his usual snarky self he let people get used to.

But he knew that when Monday would come and he would close enough to hear and see Kageyama he would be in trouble. Because Kageyama had to have pretty blue eyes that were like the same color as water. It was cringe worthy to make those crappy cheesy lines in his head but, that was the problem apparently when someone was in love, it meant that he couldn't stop them. They just kept popping up in random times that he couldn't stop himself from groaning and having Yamaguchi having that smug face of knowing what was driving him crazy. Yachi was thankfully more easy to hang around while giving him time to mourn for having a crush on one of oblivious volleyball idiots in the team. Hinata though, he wished he didn't act remotely like Yamaguchi and tag team with his best friend with laughing at his expanse of trying to deny any developments. Tsukishima just wanted high school to end and moving away from his hometown and forget everyone's faces and this situation. It wasn't that he was angry at falling for Kageyama; it just because he didn't want to fall in love in the first place. He knew himself all too well and knew his personality could be awful, he knew his sarcastic humor could eventually get his ass kicked and not be well liked by other people, but that was it. He didn't want to be well liked and have a lot of fake people surrounding him, that was why he only allowed a small fraction of people to hang out with him. He could deal with Yamaguchi, or people similar to Ennoshita. Hell he wouldn't have minded too much if he ended up roommates with Kinoshita. They were all the type to talk to sensibly and without much arguing. But that didn't happen, he got stuck with Hinata becoming more buddy-buddy with him and Kageyama making him rethink about his life. It felt like the universe was being an ass again to him.

And when summer hit and they all had to go out to Tokyo he hated how more people figured his struggle to stay away from Kageyama. He hated how cunning that third year from Nekoma was and how Hinata spilled with their setter. Kageyama didn't know how much Tsukishima suffered from multiple people trying to ease Tsukishima into confessing, he was all too occupied with training and volleyball in general to notice. He just kept on training and getting better and Tsukishima felt like there was too much going on, with Yamaguchi calling him out with his early fall out with the sport and not talking to his older brother. And having to make himself talk to other people outside his team about why they gave a damn about a club. It was a lot, and by the end of their trip he learned a few things; but not enough to straight-out talk to Kageyama that frankly. He just settled with the memory of holding his hand, and how soft his face could get. It didn't matter how long Yamaguchi complained about it, or how Hinata purposely leaving a spot open for Tsukishima to sit next to Kageyama while they studied. He didn't take the bait, he stubborn that way and he would continue until they graduated. Even when another quiet moment passed with them just alone came, Tsukishima made sure to keep his hands inside his pockets while keeping his headphones out in the open and placed on top of his ears just as a precaution.

Walking side by side after practice the sky was already dark; from way behind the rest of the team was eating food from the small market while making jokes. Only Kageyama for some reason denied eating with them and continued walking beside him. They didn't say much again for most of the duration but Tsukishima felt it again. This heavy tug from his chest the way Kageyama's shoulder brushed his arm or how he noticed the streetlights making Kageyama's face glow and making his eyes look really pretty. That was where a fire in the pit of his stomach made him burn. It was uncomfortable that Tsukishima considered picking up the pace.

"Say that again."

"What?"

Tsukishima didn't know how to respond to that, he knew he must've looked confused when Kageyama repeated himself. "You heard me, say that again. About my eyes looking nice."

"I didn't say anything."

Unless he accidentally said it out loud while he was trying to act calm. And it looked like that was the case the way Kageyama looked at him with an unreadable expression that made Tsukishima unable to know what to say. Kageyama didn't mind dragging the conversation the way he stopped walking and landed in front of Tsukishima. His body was close enough for him to feel his body heat, his eyes were watching Tsukishima as he struggled to not sound stupid and caught off guard.

"Well, you weren't whispering earlier."

"Then you must have heard wrong. If I even said anything then I was referring that the sky looked nice."

He didn't look convinced, but let it slide. "Okay fine, then you didn't hear me say that your face is sometimes okay to look out."

He didn't bother to watch how Tsukishima's face flushed again, or how much closer the rest of the team was coming from behind them. Kageyama instead went on with the rest of hill alone letting the words soak in and make Tsukishima curse under his breath. He pushed play from his iPod and ignored the team and waved bye to Yamaguchi as he walked back home. The next morning Kageyama was still racing and competing with Hinata, and Tsukishima pretended that he didn't have a mutual crush with the guy. The only thing that changed was that Kageyama was now aware of his side glances; and hell that was not what he wanted to happened in the first place. Because now Tsukishima was stuck in between this place where he couldn't outright ignore how happy he was inside that Kageyama liked him too and, at the same time groan in frustration that he had to deal with this unknown territory where he didn't know how to respond with a mutual pinning. He just didn't understand why Kageyama of all people liked him back, they argued, they barely much in common and he thought that his side comments would have made Kageyama hate him. But he didn't. He did the opposite and became infuriating, the way Kageyama blatantly crossed paths with him and let his fingers brush with Tsukishima's when they blocked. He wasn't so sublet, and it made Tsukishima want to walk away from the team just so he cut all ties with the team. However, what stopped him from doing that was Yamaguchi and his curiosity to seeing himself play against their next opponent. Other than that, he tipped toed with Kageyama and volleyball. Still unsure on how to respond and go from there.


End file.
